He's posting from work on his lunch break on a pretty archaic smartphone. Editing posts can be tough for him.

In any event, both his d20s were natural 1s so it doesn't really matter.

Hastened and inspired by his little brother's song, Maddok surges forward, closely behind Xerath's firey rays. He closes the gap, fearless of the creature's whipping tendrils, and brings his hammer up in a rising uppercut.

"I think we found the diseas-" Yahirma begins before being doused in shadowy flames. "-oun philow theu!" she concludes profanely after blinking away the illusory assault. "Epi auton!" she demands of her allied shadow before evoking a burst of sound strong enough to rival the stench of the room.

Sound burst behind the nihiloi in the hopes of pinning it down for another round. Misfortune (and some crossed fingers) applies.

The shadow grudgingly moves to G-26 on level with the nihiloi (almost certainly provoking), where it reaches out and samples the taste of shadowflesh.

The shadow takes 9 damage from the supernatural tendrils, before its energy-laden touch saps the nihiloi's strength.

***

Unable to move, the nihiloi remains frozen in place. A few of the wounds covering its body close, however.

***

The splashing of a huge creature striding forward through the muck is suddenly heard coming from the west. About a third of a massively-sized otyugh, with disease-postules and boils covering its huge tentacles, peeks out from the area of supernatural darkness.

It shouts out happily. "I HEARD NOISES! HAVE YOU BROUGHT DELICIOUS FOOD FOR VARPNALL?"

Knowledge (dungeoneering) DC 14 provides all the Bestiary-information on otyughs, but also makes it clear that this creature is larger and apparently more intelligent than an ordinary otyugh. Regular otyughs also wouldn't be covered with boils and postules like this one.

While Appario easily dances and weaves his way past the nihiloi's whipping tendrils, Maddok suffers 13 damage and the greater shadow suffers 7 damage from their vicious lashings. The tendrils seem less forceful after the shadow's touch.

The combined assaults of Maddok and Appario come very close to annihilating the nihiloi, but it hangs on to life by a thread.

The shadow's touch weakens it further; its strength seems to wither away before your eyes.

***

Map and otyugh-response when I no longer have a cat on my lap :)

Up next: Derek and Xerath. I'll roll for Derek's stated searing light once Xerath has posted, unless Derek posts himself before then.

The otyugh seems absolutely delighted by the prospect of eating lobster, and its tentacles weave about in some sort of weird happy-dance. "LOBSTER! VARPNALL HASN'T TASTED LOVELY LOBSTER FOR MANY YEARS!"

A trace of doubt creeps into its voice. "ARE THEY FRESH? OR LIKE THE HALF-ROTTEN FOOD VARPNALL HAS BEEN GIVEN RECENTLY?"

Yahirma looks to Maddok with some confusion as he makes the first (to her) coherent remark since combat began. "Wait, he's our friend? But I haven't even..." she whispers while getting her bearings.

Sense Motive:1d20 + 9 + 2 ⇒ (20) + 9 + 2 = 31

Oh, those were negotiations, not battle-cries.

"I have never seen lobster so fresh, and it's kept in a tank nearby," Yahirma adds with a slightly worried glance back at the doors and an attempt to judge whether the pustule-covered behemoth might fit through them. "Befriend it, Xerath? Can't you tell that we've always been its friend?" she adds with a wink as an aside to the blue-hooded arcanist. Turning back to the otyugh she builds upon her narrative by adding, "It is difficult to believe that the ones who have been feeding you never told you about the lobsters that they were keeping for themselves! Why, I have half a mind to march up to them and tell them how disappointed I am!"

Deflating slightly, she sheepishly admits, "Oh, but they would just push me around because they're bigger and stronger than I am. Why, I bet even now they're laughing about how much good food they're keeping from us."

Derek carefully angles forward so he stands close to Yahirma, then he bends down and begins to check his shoes, hiding his mouth from the Otyugh as he whispers to Yahirma.

"Good, but don't lay it on too thick, we don't know HOW smart this..aberration of aberrations is, he may sound a bit like a big child, but children can be pretty loyal to those it sees as parents.
Still, you are very skilled at this, almost bardlike."
Here he stands up and gives Yahirma a wink and a grin.

The otyugh regards Maddok with huge eyes. "NO! IT'S VARPNALL. NOT VARPNELL! HOW LONG? VARPNALL STOPPED COUNTING THE TURNING OF YEARS A LONG TIME AGO."

Varpnall listens to Yahirma with it's tentacles forming something looking much like a frown. "THEY HAVE NOT TOLD VARPNALL OF ANY LOBSTERS! THE NEW ONES HAVE ONLY BROUGHT DEAD, ROTTING THIEVES FOR MANY WEEKS! THEY MUST THINK VARPNALL IS NOT TO BE FEARED, SINCE HIS DISEASES DON'T AFFECT THEM."

The huge creature shakes its head. "YOU DON'T WANT TO BE CLOSER TO VARPNALL THAN YOU ARE NOW. HIS BREATH WILL GIVE YOU PLAGUE AND SET YOUR MIND ON FIRE." Its tentacles makes movements like some sort of apologetic shrug. "IT HAS HAPPENED BEFORE, UNTIL VARPNALL LEARNED HOW CLOSE TO OTHER LIVING CREATURES HE COULD BE."

I doubt the remaining chuul will be able to withstand it; even though it could easily out-swim the otyugh, and might manage to stay out of the otyugh's 20-ft reach, there would be the little problem of two DC 24 Fortitude saves vs instant-onset diseases any time the otyugh got within 30 ft of it :)

***

The creature moves its tentacles about, perhaps using them to measure distance, then points north with one. "GO THERE! NO, FURTHER. ALL THE WAY TO THE WALL."

Once it's satisfied with the group's positioning, it begins moving. First south, where it skirts alongside the cavern wall until it reaches the stone platform. Then it half-climbs, half-slithers onto the stone.

Before continuing on, it turns its regard to the group again. "VARPNALL THANKS YOU! HE WILL ENJOY THE LOBSTERS!" Its tentacles wave goodbye, before it remembers to caution the group. "YOU MUST WAIT UNTIL VARPNALL IS GONE BEFORE YOU GO THIS WAY."

It then slowly squeezes through the doorway, leaving globs of muck in its wake as it lumbers into the winch-room and then squeezes its way through the hallway. A little less than a minute later, you hear a huge splash from the south, as if Varpnall just jumped into the lake.

***

The archon vanishes during the conversation with Varpnall, along with its aid spells, Derek's haste, and Maddok's shield.

Judging by how much of Varpnall was visible while he was in the muck compared to once he climbed onto the stone platform, you'd judge the muck to be waist-deep for Medium-sized creatures in most areas.

Like a restaurant-goer tapping the bottom of a ketchup bottle to check for any trace remnants, after experimentally flicking the wand a few more times, Yahirma gives it up for spent and places it back in her pack.

Still making an effort to breath through her mouth, Yahirma turns to the others and says, "The first shadow spoke of others like himself as well as shadow rats. As extraordinary a combatant as this shadow is, I feel it would be better to be rid of it and me ready to possess any other undead we meet." Beckoning for it to approach, she salutes it and acknowledges its service and future freedom. "What was done is now done, and you will be free to remember the world as a liberated spirit, not one bound by shadow. Maddok, would you be so kind?" she concludes making a chopping motion towards the greater shadow.

She draws the wand of deathward and uses a weapon cord to attach it to her right hand, and to her left she ties her new rod of reach, lesser.

Shadow rats, shadows, the lover, and the master... I don't think I want to witness any of their wrath hand-to-hand.

A short hallway from the eastbound doors leads to a chamber filled with the stench of death and decay. At least three dozen corpses in various states of decomposition have been haphazardly thrown to rest against the walls or splayed along the floor, while a few broken boxes and crates are stacked in the south-east corner.

Perhaps even more disconcerting than the decomposing corpses is the vast amount of shadowy, red-eyed rats surging silently over and through them, more than a thousand in number.

***

These are incorporeal shadow rat swarms, like the single swarm you faced in Walcourt the day before.

Pulled between saving Appario from the burst of electricity and driving the rats into it, Yahirma elects to pursue the latter.

Swarm #4 Reflex revisited:1d20 + 6 ⇒ (7) + 6 = 13

Not waiting to see if it changed anything, she moves away as quickly as possible while brushing off the clinging rats. Once she clears the area (D-36), she presents a set of sacred talismans and tries to will the swarms to stand down.

Channel energy to Control Undead (DC 21) should hit Swarms 1-3. If I must choose, I favor Swarms 2, 1, and 3 in that order.

DM Are, would I have still taken the damage if I had been on my computer and been able to move with Maddok on my initiative? Seems that I'm taking damage before I even get to take my turn because I had dared go to dinner with my wife.

As Yahirma bids her spirits to pull some of the rats into the arc of lightning, several hundred more rats perish. The remnants of that particular swarm scurry away as quickly as possible, vanishing into the walls.

DM Are, would I have still taken the damage if I had been on my computer and been able to move with Maddok on my initiative? Seems that I'm taking damage before I even get to take my turn because I had dared go to dinner with my wife.

Sure, move away before the lightning bolt if you wish :)

The positive attributes of having an "actions are taken in order of posting when all the PCs act before the enemies get to act again" system are pretty good, most of the time, though.

Thanks for understanding. I do wish. :) In the past, most of our party has been more considerate to instances like this to state intelligent and wise things like: "When Appario moves, I blast the area," and the like. Moving on...